Broken glass was strewn along downtown Providence sidewalks outside ransacked businesses. Inside and out, weary-looking owners and staff were scrambling to clean up while trying to make sense of it all.
That’s what the capital city woke up to on June 2, after a night of mayhem and rioting following what had been peaceful protesting of the killing of a Minnesota man, George Floyd, while in police custody in that state.
It was all the more heartbreaking to witness given what many of those owners and their employees have been through during the COVID-19 pandemic and the timing – the week many of them were reopening.
But as has occurred so often since the sudden March shutdown of much of the state economy to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, amid the suffering there were also signs of hope and resilience.
As business owners worked to board up storefronts, neighbors and strangers came by to help.
Mariela O’Neill made her way to Providence with a dustpan and broom. The East Providence woman joined a stranger who came for the same reason.
When they stopped outside the Black Sheep Providence pub on Westminster Street to sweep up broken glass, the owner stepped outside. He declined to discuss the damage, noting others had suffered worse, but he made sure to thank the two strangers.
It was a scene of compassion and support in the face of crisis repeatedly seen across the Ocean State in recent months.
In a state whose motto is “Hope,” such respites offer just that for Rhode Islanders and struggling businesses still fighting to survive.